Floyd Mayweather Pumps Breaks on Manny Pacquiao Fight at the Sphere

Floyd Mayweather's announced return fight appears to be in jeopardy yet again.

The 49-year-old Mayweather has not fought professionally since 2017, but he announced he would be returning to the ring in a rematch with Manny Pacquiao in mid-2026. The fight was promoted for The Sphere in Las Vegas, but Mayweather is now walking that back.

Mayweather recently admitted that while The Sphere is being discussed, nothing has been officially booked yet.

"As of right now, we don't know exactly where the fight is going to be at," Mayweather said, via Vegas Sports Today. "We don't know the location of the fight. The Sphere is one of the places that they've talked about. We don't know 100 percent if it's going to be there."

“As of right now, we don't know where the fight is gonna be. The Sphere is one of the places they talked about, so we don't know if it's 100%.”

Floyd Mayweather on possibly fighting Manny Pacquiao at the spear in September.

🎥: @MikeDixon_VST #Boxing pic.twitter.com/UlNQuMfPwu
— Vegas Sports Today (@VegasSportsTD) March 28, 2026

The fight would be the first-ever boxing event at The Sphere, which opened in 2023. The venue has hosted a combat sports fight card before with UFC 306, but never for boxing.

Mayweather also revealed that he will not be returning to professional boxing, saying his rematch with Pacquiao will be an exhibition. The entire promotion to this point has been about Mayweather's professional return.

'Money' currently has three fights supposedly on the books. He is expected to face Mike Tyson and former kickboxer Mike Zambidis before the Pacquiao fight.

While Mayweather's last professional fight was nearly a decade ago, he has been competing in exhibition bouts. Mayweather has fought in seven exhibition boxing matches since his retirement, the most recent one in August 2024.

Floyd Mayweather putting his own fights in jeopardy

Without The Sphere locked and loaded, many took Mayweather's comments as potentially an admission that the fight could fall through. Mayweather has had several of those recently and is almost becoming impossible to trust.

In addition to the fights he has on the books, Mayweather was supposed to be featured in multiple fights in 2025, none of which came to fruition. Announcing fights and actually signing the contract have become two completely different elements to a matchup for Mayweather.

However, Mayweather already appears to have too much on the line for the promises his team made with the Pacquiao rematch to fall through. The event is already being promoted by Netflix, which has purchased broadcast rights to the event, while being billed for The Sphere.

Given the legal issues Mayweather is already rumored to be facing, over-promising and under-delivering once again would not be in his best interest.